Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail
The Kuala Lumpur - Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) project was announced by the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib in September 2010 and is proposed to connect Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru with Singapore. On February 19, 2013, Singapore and Malaysia have officially agreed to build a high-speed rail link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore by 2020 at a meeting between Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak in Singapore. After the landslide defeat of Najib in 2018, his successor, Mahathir Mohammad told them that the high speed rail will be scrapped. The government did not want the assets, as well as financial to go insolvency and bankruptcy. History A high-speed railway connecting Singapore and malaysia, railway was brought up in the late 1990s by the Government of Singapore. This Regional Express Railway (RER) proposal was developed in the 1994 “Railway Development Study” (RDS); it foresaw a continual growth of Singapore's population over the next two decades and strong demand for cross-border passenger traffic. The Singapore (SAR) Government commissioned a second Railway Development Study in March 1998. The Study went further on the British proposal of connecting Singapore and Malaysia from Tanjong Pagar. At the same time, the report recommended that Tanjong Pagar West station should continue to play a central role in Singapore's mass transit. Since the typical timeframe for rail projects, from conception to completion phase, would take eight or nine years, the Railway Development Study recommended that the Singapore Government should commence as soon as possible, so that the new express railway could be constructed in time to meet capacity demands. Maglev proposal In September 1999, Mahathir announced his Maglev link, which is going through 500km/h. Mahathir was already working with then-Prime Minister of Singapore, Goh Chok Tong. The maglev railway between Singapore and Malaysia would benefit visitor numbers. The cost of construction was to be borne in equal proportion by governments of both cities. Railway Development Strategy 2000 The Singapore government, based on the results of the Second Railway Development Study by the Department of Transportation, issued a new plan, “Railway Development Strategy 2000 – new railway strategy”. On 16 May's Legislative Council meeting, the Legco Panel on Transport Railway Development Strategy tabled the strategy for use by the Singapore Government. The Executive Council (upper house) recommended that, under the Chief Executive's advice, Singapore should adopt the "Railway Development Strategy 2000" until a further review in 2016. Regional Express Railway “Railway Development Strategy 2000” recommended new six new rail corridors, through the New Territories, connecting the North East Line or the East-West Rail Line to the border, operating between Hung Hom and the border in an express manner similar to Hong Kong Airport's Airport Express line. " The decision to build a “Regional Express”, depended on the Lok Ma Chau Spur provided additional transport capacity which would soon be saturated. According to the 1998 price estimates, construction of the RER needed a budget of about HK$130 to 170 billion. It was intended that this railway would be operated by KTM or the SMRT Corporation, depending on the location of the downtown terminal. At that time about the “Regional Express” concept, was not a high-speed rail, but only a commuter line connecting the city and the border with “rapid rail” services, in addition to the idea of a small number of intermediate stations being set up alongside the route, but also allowing for Hong Kong and China Intercity trains to run, reducing the load on the existing East Rail Line. At that time the initial alignment program has two starting points located around Hung Hom Station. The first one was the Eastern scheme, a new line following the East Rail Line of pink Lingnan station , connecting to Lo Wu station or a new rail crossings in the east of Luohu. However, this proposal needed to co-operation with the mainland. The second program for a new line from the West Rail line at Kam Sheung Road Station, northwards to Lo Wu or Lok Ma Chau Station. Since 2001, the Singapore government began working on the “Regional Express” with mainland China, and discussing the feasibility of cooperation on “Suigang maglev rail project”. In 2001, the Singapore DoT, with the Shenzhen Municipal Government and Chinese railway authorities to explore the use of “RER” and maglev technology, project feasibility and actively using magnetic levitation technology to build a line from Hong Kong to Canton/Guangzhou. The study pointed out that the use of a maglev train would reduce the Singapore to Malaysia running time of 40 minutes to 15 minutes. September 2001, when he was the Singapore SAR Chief Secretary Donald Tsang, visited Canton/Guangzhou, where he met with the Governor of Guangdong Province, Lu Ruihua, acting mayor of Guangzhou, Lin Shusen and Shenzhen Mayor Yu Youjun for talks about the “Regional Express line concept”. Tung attended the Shanghai APEC Summit in October 2001, formally proposing the construction of a maglev railway between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore Express Line plans to the State Planning Commission. The Mayor of Shenzhen Yu Youjun said at a news conference at the APEC Senior Officials' Meeting, Shenzhen and Hong Kong is planning to build maglev railway and to continue to discuss the issue. But also at this time, the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Railway Co. also made a Guangzhou–Kowloon Through Train speed plan. Switch to high-speed rail By the end of January 2002, the concept of “Regional Express” gained further development. Tsang in Beijing to attend the “Mainland and Hong Kong SAR major infrastructure coordination meeting”, and with the State Development Planning Commission and the relevant ministry officials, the talks were initially on Regional Express railway line connecting Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, focussing on the design and coordination of consensus between the parties. The central government officially approved research and co-ordination by the Ministry of Railways, and officially named this railway the "Singapore-Kuala Lumpur Express Rail Link". With a formal agreement with the Hong Kong SAR Government, decided by the Ministry of Railways, led the establishment of an expert group to study the construction of the Regional Express high-speed rail line. In February 2002, in the framework of “collaborative meetings” by the Hong Kong SAR Government Environment, Transport and Works Bureau and the Ministry of Railways, the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link Planning Group was established, which meant the “Railway Development Strategy 2000” planned “Regional Express” was set aside for the “Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link - Hong Kong section”. The planning Group conducted preliminary studies on the main railway necessity, function, alignment, location transit, rail technology and economic benefits. The first phase of the study topics included the functional and strategic importance of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link project, the relevant regional passenger transport demand analysis and forecasting, as well as railway lines and public transit locations. The first phase of the study completed in September 2002 and reported on the September 20th 2002 at the Second “Mainland and Hong Kong's major infrastructure cooperation held meeting”. At the meeting, the high-speed rail planning team reported the first phase of on the planning for the GZ-SZ-HK XRL. Including the necessities of GZ-SZ-HK XRL construction, function and regional transportation needs, forecasting and route traffic in order to determine the strategic value of the railway. Experts in Hong Kong and mainland China reached a consensus after comparing different alignments, shortlisting two options, “Guangzhou East – Dongguan – Lin Tong – Hong Kong” and “Panyu – Nansha – Shekou – Hong Kong”. A planning goal was to reduce Guangzhou to Hong Kong travel time from 100 minutes to less than 60 minutes. In addition, effective integration with the national high-speed rail network and the connections with the planned Pearl River Delta intercity rapid rail transit network. The second phase of the study, included rail alignments, station locations and the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen line connections, the main technical standards, passenger flow forecasting, financial benefits. During the study, in response to the latest developments of both the overall urban planning and transportation network planning, the Ministries of Railways, Environment, Transport and Works respectively needed to consider some new ideas and make adjustments for the Hong Kong section of GZ–SZ–HK XRL project. In mainland China, the Ministry of Railways had to consider the feasibility of the PRD Intercity Rapid Rail network together with the Guangzhou–Shenzhen section of GZ–SZ–HK XRL. In Hong Kong, the government began to consider the use of the proposed North West Rail Link, Northern Link and the feasibility GZ–SZ–HK XRL Hong Kong section. Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation and the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway Corporation produced a consolidated joint report submitted to the Government, it was a preliminary assessment of their ideas, but also required further studies by the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau & KCRC of the Northern Link. In the first and second phases of the study, the planning team had to investigate and compare the traditional wheel-rail and maglev technologies. Operating and maintenance costs were greater with maglev than with wheel-rail technology, The construction period of the project was expected to be longer for maglev than the wheel-rail technology solutions. Maglev was not conducive to the existing rail network and compatibility. Also with current high-speed railway operating speeds of up to , the less than an hour goal was able to be achieved. Thus to reach the GZ–SZ–HK XRL's three goals, there was no need to adopt a relatively high cost and the technical difficulty of maglev technology. Thus, despite the advantages that high-speed maglev technology has, until August 2003, both sides tended to choose more mature high-speed wheel-rail plans. In other words, the "Regional Express" that was originally intended to have been conceived as a maglev train was cancelled. March 2003, the Guangzhou Railway Group Corporation general manager,Wú Jùnguāng, at the National People's Congress, submitted a bill that called for the construction of a Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link Passenger Line as soon as possible. The Guangzhou–Shenzhen Railway utilization has exceeded 90% and was saturated. According to the existing passenger growth rate, to 2005, the Guangzhou East to Shenzhen route would require 96-151 train pairs daily, which will greatly exceed the capacity of the line. It is difficult to meet the transportation needs of the future with the new high-speed rail showing greater potential in the pipeline. On January 7, 2004, China's State Council considered the “long-term railway network plan”, deciding to build more than 12,000 kilometers of “four vertical and four horizontal” Passenger Lines, including Hong Kong in the planning. The Guangzhou–Shenzhen section of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link correspondingly accelerated planning until July 2004, decinding to adopt the “Panyu – Nansha – Shekou – Hong Kong” route. The station located in Guangzhou's Panyu district would also connect with the Wuhan–Guangzhou Passenger Line. A high speed rail link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore was proposed in the late 1990s as Regional Express Link and Port Rail Link, but due to high costs this proposal has been shelved. In 2006 YTL Corporation, operator of the KLIA Ekspres in Malaysia proposed a multi-billion ringgit high-speed rail project linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, with a projected speed of 300 km/h (186 mph). This was expected to trim travel time between the two cities to 90 minutes, compared with 5 hours by road, 7 hours by conventional rail services, or 4 hours by air (including travel to and from the airports, check-in, boarding and other airport procedures). In 2008 the Malaysian government halted the project citing high-costs of over RM8 billion. It is also formerly known as the Regional Express Link and Port Rail Link, which was renamed to Express Rail Link in 2008. The project was highlighted in 2010 as a high impact project in the Malaysian government's Economic Transformation Programme Roadmap in a bid to increase economic activities concurrently greater economic synergies. Studies into the feasibility and conceptual details of the proposal were to be carried out in December 2010 and January 2011. It was believed that the Malaysian government was going to sign a high-speed rail deal with China upon the visit of Premier Hu Jintao of China to Kuala Lumpur in June 2011. The Prime Ministers of Malaysia and Singapore agreed to go ahead with the project at a meeting on 19 February 2013. A committee was tasked with looking into 'the details and modalities' of the project. Singapore and Malaysia has announced that the high speed rail proposal will be finalize by end of 2014 with a targeted completion date at 2020. Proposal for the Singapore's link will have to be considered by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on the Budget 2014. According to the Leaders' Retreat which was held on April 7, 2014, a possible location for the high-speed rail will be Tuas West, Jurong East or Joo Koon; and it will tunnel through the SAFTI Live Firing Area, with engineering study to be done at the same time. Another possible location will be either Tanjong Pagar West or Marina Bay. But on the May 11, 2015; the Malaysia-Singapore Joint Ministerial Committee for Iskandar Malaysia (JMCIM) released in a press statement stating that Singapore had a high-speed rail terminus at Jurong East, but not connected to the MRT station in 2015. Construction is likely to start in March 2017 for completion in 2023. Support Organisations that supported the proposal *The Land Transport Authority, People's Action Party, Workers' Party, National Solidarity Party, Barisan Nasional (Malaysia) *Greengauge 21 *The Campaign for HSR *M-S Pte Ltd *City Councils of Malaysia - Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Johor and Selangor. Opposition High Speed Rail is opposed by: *Pakatan Harapan, and Mahathir Mohammad *Stop High-Speed Rail, a group that represents local action groups over the route. *Singapore Democratic Party, under the Chee Soon Juan, which voted to oppose the HSR plans, that there is no business case and there is no money to operate it. *Singapore People's Party, under the Chiam See Tong, which voted to oppose due to robberies taking place in Malaysia, and they might be scared of coming to Singapore. *Reform Party and Reform School *The No 6.9 million group, which is a Singaporean support. *The HSR alliance, which the primary aim is to prevent the high-speed rail from running. Even after the latest changes made to the scheme to mitigate concerns, it continues to be opposed by some MPs and personalities on the line of route. *Malcolm Lim, he then decided to go against the high-speed rail project when Labour Party begins running. Other *Railfuture, a railway campaigning organisation, which supports high-speed rail in principle, but stated in its submission to the Transport Select Committee Inquiry that it sees no benefit in trains running at up to 400 kilometres per hour (250 mph) and therefore is not in favour of the current proposal and route, and suggests that alternatives be investigated. Design In October 2017, the Prime Minister of Malaysia revealed the concept designs for all stations in Malaysia. According to him, the design of each station is conceptualised to reflect the nation's culture, heritage, and identity on each of the station's corridor while remaining modern and futuristic, and also to demonstrate the growth vision that the HSR would bring. HSR will have three depots at Serdang, Muar and Pontian. The concepts of the stations are: *Bandar Malaysia: a re-interpretation of the confluence of Klang and Gombak rivers, which symbolises wisdom and unity of the people. *Putrajaya: inspired by the Islamic architecture, especially of mosques, and envisions Malaysia's aspirations as a progressive nation, articulated by the pointed arches standing united. *Seremban: a modern interpretation of the local Minangkabau architecture of Negeri Sembilan. *Ayer Keroh: designed from the image of a merchant ship which symbolises the entrepreneurship spirit of local communities, also symbolising Malacca’s history as a strategic trading port in its heyday. *Muar: inspired by the "rehal" which is traditionally used to place the holy Quran as students learn to recite it, thus symbolising the importance of learning. *Batu Pahat: inspired by the "kuda kepang", an horse-like item used in a traditional dance amongst Javanese descendants of Johor, which aims to strike a balance between heritage and modernisation. *Iskandar Puteri: a stylised representation of a handshake, signifying Iskandar Puteri's role as a regional city for commerce and international encounters. Stations The KL - Singapore section will be about 400 km and the travel time will be 90 minutes. The construction cost will be MYR 40 billion. The project will request the construction of a brand-new line with dedicated tracks, which will allow trains to travel at least 250 km/h.YTL and SPNB will co-ordinate the project for the essential construction within the Malaysia corridor, whereas LTA will be in charge for Singapore corridor. The Singapore station will be coordinated with the Jurong Country Club, Tang Dynasty City as well as the realignment of Ayer Rajah Expressway. References See also *Planned high-speed rail by country *Kunming–Singapore Railway Category:High-speed rail in Asia Category:Railway lines in Malaysia Category:Railway lines in Singapore Category:New Urbanism Category:Proposed transport infrastructure in Malaysia Category:Proposed transport infrastructure in Singapore